Looking back and forward to UAFC

Making female condoms more known, more available and more affordable. That is what the Universal Access to Female Condoms (UAFC) Joint Programme aimed to achieve between 2009 and 2015. Now we want to continue and expand. Can we count on your support?

Female condoms provide protection against both unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. Moreover, they give women more control over safe sex. In spite of all their clear benefits, access to female condoms was very limited. They were not known, not available and not affordable.

Through a unique 3-way approach, UAFC – a collaboration between Rutgers, i+solutions, Oxfam Novib and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs – aimed to change this. We combined technical support to social marketing organisations and manufacturers with advocacy towards policy makers. Moreover, in country programmes in Cameroon, Mozambique and Nigeria, we distributed female condoms and educated communities on their use.

UAFC paved the way for universal access to female condoms. In our fancy resume ‘Reaching the climax’ on phase II of the programme – see below – you can read about our achievements and innovative methods. But the road is not yet completed. We cannot let our efforts go to waste. Besides, our approach offers great opportunities for other underutilized commodities, such as emergency contraceptive pills and medical abortion.

Are you interested in our plans to continue and expand? Please contact Yvonne Bogaarts, Advocacy Manager at Rutgers (y.bogaarts@rutgers.nl), and Luuk Jan Boon, Managing Director at i+solutions (ljboon@iplussolutions.org). Hopefully you will support and join our mission. Together, we can reach the climax.